I think I'm in love...

...with these cupcake kits I just discovered (via Oh Happy Day). Check out Meri Meri for a beautiful selection of sweetly designed kits, containing cupcake liners + toppers. Oh my word. I might be getting one of these for my son's first birthday coming up in a couple of weeks. But even if I don't...you should.

spreading a little sunshine...

I have been BUSY. Helping a friend stage her house for sale, taking Valentines to a nursing home, creating new cards for my shop, doing more yardwork this week than I did all of last year combined (thanks to good health - woohoo!), working on creating a garden in my front yard (my first ever!), taking care of sick kids, avoiding a sick husband (in an attempt to stay healthy myself), and cleaning. Spring cleaning. Spring is giving us a teaser here in Oregon this week and I am LOVING it. I feel like a new woman!

Here are some of the cards my daughters and I made for some elderly people in a nearby nursing home. We busted out 50 of these! Taking these cards to those sweet elderly people with my children was one of the highlights of my life. My girls were so sweet - and brave - and my son (whose 11 months old now) was SUCH a ray of sunshine to those people. They brought so many smiles to people who probably feel as if they've been forgotten. We didn't want them to feel that way.

I wish I had the time to tell you all of the stories of that day. Here are just a few tidbits: We visited the "skilled nursing" section, which meant everyone was either in beds or wheelchairs. The very first room we stopped in was an elderly lady named Sarah. She just kept saying what "pretty babies" they were. After we left her room and headed down the hall, she followed us in her wheelchair for several minutes because she just couldn't get enough of watching my kids. I don't think they have many kids that come to visit them there.

There was a little old man who couldn't talk, but was SO grateful for the card, and blew kisses to my kids. So they blew kisses back! It was the sweetest thing. Then, an elderly woman entered the room and he pointed to his wedding ring and then to her, gesturing that she was his wife. She almost started crying when she saw the sweet card we had brought for him. I asked if she lived there too, and she said no, that she was there to have lunch with him. It was so sweet and sad that I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach.

There was another old man who was so shaky and his hands were gnarled...but when he spoke to my son, my son would smile and wave his little 11-month old arms and literally melted this old man and everyone else he came into contact with. This man wanted to shake my kids' hands - and so my little three-year-old and five-year-old girls put their hands in his shaky, gnarled and twisted ones, and made his day.

As we entered another room with two ladies in it, one of them just began raving from the very beginning, "Oh, this is such a blessing. Oh, these children are beautiful. Oh, mom, you don't even realize how wonderful this is. Oh, what a wonderful thing to do. Oh, this is so special....so beautiful..." and on and on and on. She was making me want to cry.

 
Most of these people looked from the doorway like they were sleeping. But as soon as we said "hello" and asked if we could bring them a Valentine, they would come alive. They lit up and couldn't get enough of my kids. They all wanted us to stay and visit and I wished we could stay and visit the whole time with each person...but I knew I had another 49 Valentines to deliver. It was sweet and special and heartbreaking all at the same time.

I was SO proud of my kids. It was only when we got back in the car that I saw what time it was, and realized that we had been there for an hour and a half, right through the kids' lunchtime! They had not complained a bit and even though they got tired and hungry and were probably there way past when they should have been, they continued making people smile up until the very last minute. You better believe I got those kids lunch AND ice cream on the way home!

details of a fairy party

When the girls arrived at the party, they got to choose their own fairy skirt (thank you, Dollar Tree!) and wings to wear. I couldn't find pre-made fairy wings for each girl that fit my budget, so...I used some white posterboard (that I already had) and cut out wings. Then, I free-handed a swirly design (loosely based on Tinkerbell's wings) and sprayed the wings with gold glitter spray so they shimmered.

The girls got to choose the color of ribbon to attach to the wings. Their moms helped them tie the strings onto the wings and then around their shoulders to strap them on.

I honestly expected the girls to only wear their wings for about the first fifteen minutes of the party. But those girls wore their wings and fairy skirts proudly the entire time! And no one got poked in the eye by anyone's wings! It was a birthday miracle.

The food was sort of a kids' version of brunch. It was a breakfast bar with their favorite sugar cereals, colorful yogurts, fruit, and juices. I found these round label templates on Martha Stewart's website and went a little crazy, labeling everything that didn't move. Oh, and one of the things I like to do at these kids parties is provide food for the grown-ups too - because I don't know about you, but I don't really want Lucky Charms for lunch anymore. (Mom, your little girl is all grown up!) So the day before, I made these Bacon Quiche Cups and then reheated them in the oven right before serving. Combined with fruit and juice it was a nice little lunch for the mommas.

My daughter helped out by coloring this large picture of Tinkerbell, and then the girls played "pin the butterfly on Tinkerbell". It was really cute.

Here's the birthday girl attempting to place the butterfly in just the right spot while blindfolded. You can see a little of her fairy skirt peeking out too. Their other activity was coloring and cutting out a large butterfly which they then attached to a stick and it was sort of a wand or whatever their imagination wanted it to be. (I'll admit, it was a last-minute craft when my other plan fell through. Thank goodness for clipart where you can easily go find a butterfly and make it huge when you need to!)

There's the birthday girl on the mantel again!

I don't sew, but I like bunting...so here's my version of bunting, made with scrapbook paper instead! It probably only took about 45 minutes total to put it together. (Or is that a long time? You tell me!)

And the cost of this bunting wasn't more than $3.00. You gotta love that.

In fact, I love it so much it's become Spring decor. I just can't bear to take it down!

Here's my younger daughter at her sister's party. She was the one child who DID take her wings off within ten minutes...the age difference between her at three and the other girls at five was apparent. But isn't she a doll?

I found these cute butterfly garlands at Michael's, and I was going to do a fabulous crafty decorative thingy with them...but ran out of time. So I put them on this shelf instead and I thought it was cute.

And last, but not least, I provided a "candy bar" where the girls got to fill their little bags with candy as take-home favors. That was a big hit but I bought WAY too much candy. We now have next Halloween's candy already lined up! ;-)

Check out my other post on fairy parties here.  One other detail I just realized that I forgot to photograph was the custom invitations. Note to self: must take pics of the invites and post them here. I'll try to do that soon. I know I'm not the only one planning a fairy party this year, so maybe this helps inspire you? The fun part is that it can be whatever you make it...I didn't want mine to be blatant Tinkerbell, but there was definitely some Tinkerbell elements. What's most important - my daughters and their little friends had a great time.

fairies are afoot - a fairy-themed birthday party

a fantastical fairy-inspired arrangement

Maybe some of you have little girls who - like mine - are really into Tinkerbell. But I didn't want to do a blatantly "Tinkbell"-themed party for my daughters' birthdays this month. I think this way is a little more unique and fantasy-like. Plus I got to use lots of sparkly things. You know me and my sparkly things...I love them so.

My favorite thing was the garland...it was supposed to evoke images of woodland fairies...entwrined throughout it was pink fairy lights and tons of coloful and sparkly picks, birds, and butterflies.

I was able to find all kinds of fanciful picks on clearance after Thanksgiving and during the Christmas season. And the garlands themselves...fall decor once it had reached 90% off! You gotta love that.

I couldn't afford to buy new, brightly-colored candles for the event, so instead I pulled some out that I already had and went to work transforming them with scrapbook paper and double-sided tape. (I did not light them for the party - that probably would have induced fireworks of the non-celebratory type.)

 I bought just a couple of inexpensive bouquets from the supermarket, and was able to get my money's worth by spreading them out around the room and tables. Here they are mingled in with brightly-colored votive holders that I've had for years. The paper chain was made by my daughters!

My girls - ages three and five - made the paper chain. They are always anxious to "help" with the decorations...and this was a way that they could. I actually love it so much that it's been hanging in the living room for almost three weeks now.

On the mantel I placed a picture of the birthday girl...which I usually do at every birthday party. It was flanked by a huge arrangement of lighted branches (Christmas yard picks with LED lights - on clearance after Christmas - yay!). The vase was simply a clear vase, filled with Christmas lights, and then "dressed" in two "fairy" skirts from the dollar store that I layered on top of each other for a more ethereal effect.

Here's another shot of the branches arrangement.

I found that when I added gold branches with gold beads on them (more Christmas clearance) to my supermarket bouquets, they became much more "fairy-like". The cupcakes this time were pretty simple, just chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and sprinkles in the colors of the party.

I put butterflies everywhere I could! Man, I should own stock in Michael's butterflies by now. Even more so because my older daughter's birthday party is this coming Saturday, and it ALSO has a fairy theme - so now that Michael's spring decor is out, I keep buying butteflies. Must...stop...accquiring...butterflies.

In a later post I'll share pics of the custom invitations I made for this party and also the upcoming one this weekend. I will also have more pics of party decor to show soon!

a sweet strawberry party

Hello friends! That is, if anyone out there even remembers this blog. How I have missed blogging and interacting with you all! I am a faithful lurker on my favorite blogs, of course, but I'm constantly finding myself with lots of ideas for the blog - and wishing I had the time or energy to make it happen!

homemade strawberry cupcakes (with toppers from thepaperplayground)

Here's one thing I pulled off recently, however. My daugher's fourth birthday party. She loves strawberries, and decided she wanted a "Strawberry Party". Not a Strawberry Shortcake-character party, mind you - just a Strawberry party. And, of course, how can I resist? I do love having a good theme to work with.



For the first time ever, rather than making my own invitations, I had someone else do it. Primarily because as I was searching Etsy for all things strawberry, I found a set by Etsy seller thepaperplayground that were perfect. I asked myself, "Self, when you're seven months preggo and someone's already created exactly what you're looking for, why recreate the wheel?" Kristen (of thepaperplayground) created this whole suite of hand-stamped invitations, thank-you cards, cupcake toppers, and paper favors (with a sweet message and candy inside), all with my strawberry theme. And she was super-nice and helpful to boot. What more can a girl ask for?




I decided on a palette of red, pink, and lime green. I wanted to make sure to include the lime green so that it didn't look too much like a Valentine's party. That being said, it didn't hurt that her birthday was just a few weeks before V-day - there were so many things in the right colors available for decor, and especially for favors - so it worked out perfectly.




A tiny disclaimer: my husband took every single one of these photos for me (thanks babe!)...however, he had two things working against him: 1) a new camera, on which he is still trying to figure out the best settings, etc. 2) the inability to read my mind. (I was busy running around until the very last minute - wait, running is a slight exageration...waddling is more like it - and didn't have time to give specific instructions as to what I would like to have photographed. So, what you see is what I got.)






We decided on a menu that was entirely strawberry. Peanut butter and strawberry-jelly sandwiches, strawberry lemonade, chocolate-covered strawberries, and strawberry cupcakes. I used a cookie cutter to make heart-shaped sandwiches (and ate the crusts as I went along).


The favors were so fun (and inexpensive!) to put together. I got the baskets at the Dollar Tree - two for a dollar - and almost everything else came from the dollar section at Target. Ohmyword I LOVE the dollar section at Target! They really came through for me on this one. Little Strawberry Shortcake pens and pencils, bracelets, and stamps. I would spend a dollar and get a package of six items (I had six little girls, so that was perfect) and split them between the baskets. They even had tiny grow kits - I'm not kidding - a tiny terra cotta pot with soil and - wait for it - strawberry plant seeds. I threw in a handful of strawberry candies from the dollar store, and the cutest little handmade favors - paper strawberries with a message on the outside and strawberry candy on the inside - also by thepaperplayground, and voila! We also had plenty of extra balloons, so we sent one of those home with each girl as well. I figured that each loaded favor basket cost a total of maybe $3 altogether. I was loving life.

I also provided two crafts for the girls to work on. Target (again) had these little picture frame sets in the dollar section that I bought for the girls to personalize with stickers, glitter, and stick-on jewels. Next, they put together some jewelry. I found these bead kits on after-Christmas clearance at Michael's and the girls made bracelets, necklaces, and key-rings. That ended up being fairly labor-intensive for the mommies, but I think the girls really enjoyed it. (And what wouldn't we do for our kids?!)

I wrapped a clear glass vase in pink tulle ribbon, and put in a bouquet of berries that I think are used mostly for filler - but ya know, they resemble tiny strawberries! So no boring old roses for us - we chose the berries (from Costco, butofcourse) for a charming little detail that probably no one else noticed or appreciated but ourselves. But hey - a good party is all in the details - whether they're noticed or not!

I found these adorable little truffles in the right colors - some even had little strawberries on top - that were actually tiny candles. Supposed to be Valentine's decor, but they worked great for a strawberry party, too.

Candy in jars is always a good standby when you'd like to carry a color theme around a room. Here's the shrine to my daughter - a couple of photos of her, plus candy. Of course!

I made a banner for the mantle, although I'm bummed that I can't show you a close-up (I don't have one). I found these paper doilies at the dollar store - a package of 24 for a dollar! I bought some oval ones and some rectangular ones. They were the perfect size for cutting letters and strawberries out of scrapbook paper, pasting them on the doilies, and then stringing it along the front of the mantel. You can't tell, but I even glittered the strawberries. I don't have a lot of patience for small crafty things these days, so I was pretty proud of myself for that one.

Strawberry Dreams tutu by Etsy seller tiarastutus

And lastly, a most important question. What should the Party Girl wear? After much (enjoyable) browsing again on Etsy, I discovered this amazing Strawberry Dreams Tutu by tiarastutus that I had custom-made in my daughter's size and preferred length. It had plenty of pink tulle, with little bits of green tulle like strawberry leaves and black rhinestones on the skirt to simulate strawberry seeds. It even had a matching hairbow with strawberry on it! Oh my. How could I not buy it?

But the cherry (strawberry?) on top of this whole thing was my daughter's reaction. (She just turned four, mind you.) She was so genuinely grateful and excited about each and every element of the decor and the party that it made it all more than worth it. At one point, when she saw my handmade banner, she said, "Oh, it's so beautiful! I might cry because I'm so happy!" And it was totally genuine and not melodramatic (if you can believe it!). She really was so thankful for everything, that I found myself trying to freeze those moments in my memory forever...while simultaneously praying that she'll never change and will always have that grateful spirit. So, it wasn't easy to pull off in my large and grumpy state, but it was MORE than worth it. Man, I love that kid.

monkeyin' around...a baby shower

Well, I rowsed myself from my sickbed (no one ever accused me of not being dramatic) in order to do some quick decorations for my friend Sarah's baby shower. She's expecting a boy in a couple of weeks, and a few of us girlfriends celebrated Saturday evening with a little baby shower. It's her third baby, but we believe that every baby is worth celebrating (not to mention it's an excuse for a party and presents!)...no matter if they're the first or the fifth babe in the family!

So, I threw together a monkey theme that was loosely inspired by Curious George. One would have expected me to decorate with bananas instead of lemons and limes. Actually, even I would have expected that! But I was at Costco, and the prices were reasonable for these huge bags of lemons and limes, and they were the colors I wanted, so I went for it.

The centerpiece was a large vase/hurricane filled with lemons and limes. You can't see much of it in this photo, but they are sitting on top of a folder from Target that had my colors and a monkey on it - and it was on clearance - so I used it. :-) Then, I used three small drinking glasses which I filled with some azalea branches from my friend's yard, and one lemon in each (on toothpics to keep them from sinking into the glass too far). I added some cute little stuffed monkeys (after wrenching them out of my children's hands - sorry guys!) and a few votives for good measure.
In the car on the way to the party, I decided I would just unfold the paper napkins and use them as placemats (can you tell this was much more last-minute than I normally operate?). I layered the plates over a second napkin - this one's actually meant to be used as a napkin - and threw the favor on top. They're individually wrapped biscotti, tied simply with some cute ribbon I already had that sort of matched.

All in all, it was simple, sweet and fun. It just so happens that Sarah's two kids already love monkeys (as do mine) so she could fully appreciate the theme. And she got to take home one of the stuffed monkeys from the centerpiece for her third monkey on the way.

Thanks for your sweet inquiries about my health. I am finally (after 8 days) feeling much better, although still stuffy and tired. I am a very sharing and generous person, though, as evidenced by the fact that my husband now has whatever I had. I can't help it. I just give, give, give.

Anyway - stick around - tomorrow I'm going to let you see my living room. Never before seen online. Shocking, I know. Anyway, we'll take an "exclusive" tour (don't worry, it'll only take 30 seconds - I don't exactly have a mansion!).

a different sort of nesting

"bluebird Adeline" by toosmalltocount

So, some of my faithful readers may have noticed that I haven't been posting with quite the same frequency (and quality?!) recently as I have in the past. Well, do you remember when I talked about the long-term project I was working on? I'm ready to reveal the nature of it to you now...although I'm guessing it's not what you thought. Actually, it has to do with nesting - adding a little chick to my nest, in fact. That's right, I'm expecting Baby #3 next March! So I've been sick and tired and pathetic and the poor blog has suffered a bit (not to mention the laundry...and the cleaning...and correspondence...and other commitments...but then again, when doesn't my housework suffer?). I'm finally hitting the point where things are supposed to start looking up physically. For now, feast your eyes on this cuteness:

baby onesie with appliqued striped tie by veryKIKI

baby onesie with pumpkin applique by veryKIKI

Anyway, I'm excited about this fall...I've got several redesigns lined up that should be fun to share with you all. Plus, we'll chat about seasonal decorating, autumn entertaining, and of course continue to chat about shopping and handmade art. So stay with me, people!

To kick off the fall decorating season, go check out the Fall Nesting Week blog party hosted by The Inspired Room. We'll be touring various blogger's homes as they are all decked out for the upcoming season. I might...might...be able to get my act together later in the week to partcipate with photos of my own fall decor. But in the meantime, it's always fun to peak into other people's homes and see how they decorate!